Top supporters of President-elect Donald Trump threw cold water on his campaign promise to put Hillary Clinton in jail Thursday, saying it was time to unite the country and move forward.
“Politics are over now, people have spoken, time to move on,” New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) said on NBC’s “Today” show Thursday morning, emphasizing that he and Trump have not spoken about the topic. He noted that Trump and his Democratic opponent had “an enormously gracious conversation with each other Tuesday night.”
“The people get to speak through their vote, and they voted for Donald Trump to be president of the United States,” added Christie, who is leading Trump’s White House transition efforts. “It is now his job ― and I am confident he will ― to bring the country together.”
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) told CNN Thursday that the question of whether to go after Clinton was “a tough one that should be given a lot of thought and shouldn’t be an off-the-cuff answer.”
“I think that somebody should review that very carefully, as to how bad is that evidence,” said Giuliani, who is reportedly under consideration to be Trump’s attorney general. “If it isn’t as bad as some of the exaggerators think it is, then maybe the best thing to do is forget about it and move on. If it is really bad, then somebody’s got to look at it who is independent.”
On Fox News Thursday morning, he had a similar message, saying he was uncomfortable with the idea of going after people in the legal system for political reasons.
“One thing is we try to get over the anger and everything else about an election after it’s all over. We want to put it behind us, and I don’t like to see America become a country in which we prosecute people about politics,” Giuliani said. He added, however, that if something did happen, he wouldn’t want President Barack Obama to pardon Clinton.
In early October, Trump promised to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Clinton and her use of a private email server while secretary of state if he were elected president.
“I didn’t think I’d say this but I’m going to say it, and I hate to say it, but if I win, I am going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation because there has never been so many lies, so much deception, there has never been anything like it and we’re going to have a special prosecutor,” Trump said, adding that when he is in power, Clinton would be “in jail.”
But since his win, Trump has been more conciliatory. In his victory speech Tuesday night, he thanked Clinton and asked the country to come together.
“Hillary has worked very long and very hard over a long period of time, and we owe her a major debt of gratitude for her service to our country,” he said. “I mean that very sincerely. Now it is time for America to bind the wounds of division, have to get together. To all Republicans and Democrats and independents across this nation, I say it is time for us to come together as one united people.”
Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway also refused to say the day after the election whether Trump will actually go after Clinton when he takes office.
“Lock her up” has been a popular chat at nearly every Trump rally, with many of his supporters wearing “Hillary for Prison” shirts. And some of his supporters earnestly seem to think that a President Trump will literally lock her up.
“He promised to. She’s a crook and a liar,” James McDaniels, 27, a Trump voter in Michigan, told The Washington Post.
The Trump team has also been walking back some of his other big, popular promises. Giuliani said Trump will first tackle tax reform and that building a giant wall on the border with Mexico will “take awhile.” The promise to enact a ban on Muslims from entering the United States has also now disappeared from his website.
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